Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from South Sudan and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Selector Dub Narcotic to the funk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Moebius. All the underground hits.
All Manfred Mann's Earth Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gang of Four record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Birthday Party record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Laurel Aitken,
Sällskapet,
Stetsasonic,
X-102,
Liliput,
Albert Ayler,
the Fania All-Stars,
Skriet,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Black Bananas,
The Cramps,
Susan Cadogan,
Black Pus,
Niagra,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Cymande,
Malaria!,
CMW,
Urselle,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Aswad,
Yazoo,
The Moleskins,
Alphaville,
Con Funk Shun,
Godley & Creme,
Drive Like Jehu,
Sound Behaviour,
Peter and Kerry,
The Dirtbombs,
Wings,
Jacob Miller,
The Velvet Underground,
The Monochrome Set,
The Evens,
Henry Cow,
The Knickerbockers,
David McCallum,
Ultimate Spinach,
Lou Christie,
F. McDonald,
Scratch Acid,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Scott Walker,
Adolescents,
The Searchers,
Camouflage,
Bluetip,
Depeche Mode,
Los Fastidios,
Mark Hollis,
UT,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Porter Ricks,
The Shadows of Knight,
Dead Boys,
Masters at Work,
Quadrant,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
the Human League,
Agitation Free,
Infiniti, Infiniti, Infiniti, Infiniti.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.